Big Sky Cafe at Tata's

Hi My name is Lisa and I am the manager at Big Sky Cafe. The editor of southwestobserver.com stopped by today to inform us of the site and to request a small blurb about what is going on.

Big Sky Cafe was originally open 2 years ago when Tata's first opened. While business was good, it closed for operational issues (ie they couldn't get anyone to work at 5:30am). Fast forward 2 years later, Tata's found out that the Bean drive through down the block was closing Jan. 1 and thought it would be a good idea to bring it back. I have been friends of the family for a long time and was approached by Dominick to help get things running.

Some of you may have noticed the sign attached to the balcony upstairs. The shop is physically located in the pizza shop on the 1st floor as the prior post mentioned. Our plans will be for us to eventually bring the coffee shop to the back of the store. For those of you unfamiliar with Tata's building, the pizza place is in the front and there is a small party room setup for up to 50 people in the back which is pretty nice. There is a door that leads to the back room from the side of the building on Whipple. Tata's now owns the side lot on the corner and has already put up a fence and will be having the lot paved once the weather gets warmer. This will be the entrance to the coffee shop that will allow people to come in and sit down to enjoy their coffee. Additionally, picnic tables and patio furniture will be on the patio outside so that you can have coffee in the morning and/or pizza at night.

Now to Big Sky's plans. We are open Monday - Friday 6 am - 10 am. Right now we have seven gourmet coffees - of which I currently brew 3 kinds in the morning due to low traffic, a Kona Blend and a Gourmet or Java Blend, plus a decaf. We have several flavors of hot tea including Stash Green and Orange Spice Tea, Tazo Passion and African Bush, Bentley's blueberry, orange, peach, mango and pomegranate. Muffins made fresh daily currently are Orange-Cranberry, Blueberry and Chocolate Frosted. We also plan on havng a banana nut and an oat bran and are researching other flavors. We are looking into biscotti, scones and croissants as well as other pastries including donuts. Newspapers should be available starting February 1.

For any of you who have received a flyer and/or have seen the sign our January special is a 20 oz coffee with muffins for $1.50. That is not a typo - 20 oz!! Where can you get that kind of deal? I have had plenty of comments from the first few customers that the coffee is good.

Beginning February 1, we will have everything ready to go to serve espressos and lattes. Also specialty drinks will be made as well. We are looking into gourmet hot cocoa and chai tea.

We will be having a coffee tasting for free some time in the month of February to get people to come in and try our great coffee. If you're interested you can email me privately. I will be posting the information on here as well as on our website which is currently in the works!

I hope that answers your question. I will post our monthly specials on here and will keep you posted on our progress. Thanks for asking!